Venus

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Venus
Earth
Mars
Sun
Mercury
Saturn
Jupiter
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
Extraterrestrial Volcanoes
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• Fires that shook me once,
• but now to silent ashes
• fall'n away. Cold upon
• the dead volcano sleeps
• the gleam of dying day.
• Tennyson

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Volcano Types
Cinder-cone Small, steep, ejected material
returns.
Shield Cone Circular base, gentle slopes,
basaltic, non-explosive.
Composite Cone Large, explosive, fragments plus
lava.
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Venus
Earth
Mars
Sun
Saturn
Jupiter
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
Mercury
Past Volcanism on Mercury
Abundance of surface craters No craters more that
50 km in diameter Evidence of lava-filled
craters Volcanic rock samples predate Earth Rock
samples dated _at_ gt3000 million years ago
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Earth
Venus
Mars
Sun
Mercury
Saturn
Jupiter
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
Volcanic Activity on Venus
80 of the planets surface shows volcanic
activity Several million volcanoes have been
detected Venus is (debatably) volcanically
extinct Many volcanoes are several hundred km
across, and thousands of km high
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NASA Photo A Volcano on Venus

• Largest volcanoes are shield-cone type
• No plate tectonics, which is part of how Earth
  cools
• Unconfirmed cooling theories hot spot volcanism
  
• and/or bubbling, blistering surface volcanoes

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Earth
Venus
Mars
Sun
Mercury
Saturn
Jupiter
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
Terrestrial Volcanism is a separate topic
not covered here please refer to your textbook,
the internet, or other relevant Earth-science
resources.
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The Moon

• The dark spots on
  the
• moon (maria)
  are large
• depressions covered with basaltic lava flows, the
  result of volcanic activity that began over 3
  billions years ago!
  
  
  

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Venus
Earth
Sun
Mercury
Saturn
Mars
Jupiter
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
Martian Volcanoes
Mars is almost volcanically extinct this is
debatable Martian volcanoes are probably all
shield-cone types Mars has at least 3 volcanoes
larger than those on Earth Mars has the largest
volcano in the solar system Olympus Mons
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Olympus Mons A Shield Volcano on Mars
Earths Largest Volcano Mauna Loa 9 km high
120 km across
Olympus Mons 24 km high 550 km across
x 3
Mars 1/2 of Earths diameter Olympus Mons 3
times the size of Earths largest Volcano Huge
size disparity due to Mars stationary crust,
hence enormous hot-spots that build-up in
stationary positions
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Mars
Sun
Mercury
Saturn
Jupiter
Venus
Earth
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
Volcanoes on Io A moon of Jupiter
The most volcanically active place in the solar
system At least 8 active volcanoes have been
mapped Plumes extend 280 km above Ios
surface Molten rock spews out faster than the
speed of sound The size of Io is Earths
moon Jupiter 318 times more massive than Earth
itself Io and Earths moon same orbit, but Io
has greater gravitational stress, causing huge
amounts of internal heat
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Io One of Jupiters Moons
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Io Images from Galileos Mission
(Raw images)
(Digitally remastered)
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Jupiter
Venus
Earth
Mars
Sun
Mercury
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
Volcanoes on Other Moons of Jupiter
Europa and Ganymede have Cryovolcanism!
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Venus
Earth
Sun
Neptune
Mercury
Saturn
Jupiter
Uranus
Mars
Pluto
Triton The seventh (and largest) of
Neptunes Moons also features Ice Volcanoes!
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Triton is the only large moon with a retrograde
orbit Temperature equals Plutos -235ºC Surface
contains only a few craters The surface is young
older features destroyed Ice Volcanoes! Liquid
Nitrogen??
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Uranus
Sun
Saturn
Venus
Earth
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Neptune
Mars
Mercury
Jupiter
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Pluto
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Scientists continue to search for evidence of
extraterrestrial volcanism
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Websites Used for Research can be found
at www.deafscience.net under the Astronomy
category